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WASHINGTON--Next time you make a printout from your color laser printer, shine an LED flashlight beam on it and examine it closely with a magnifying glass. You might be able to see the small, scattered yellow dots printed there that could be used to trace the document back to you.

According to experts, several printer companies quietly encode the serial number and the manufacturing code of their color laser printers and color copiers on every document those machines produce. Governments, including the United States, already use the hidden markings to track counterfeiters.

Peter Crean, a senior research fellow at Xerox, says his company's laser printers, copiers and multifunction workstations, such as its WorkCentre Pro series, put the "serial number of each machine coded in little yellow dots" in every printout. The millimeter-sized dots appear about every inch on a page, nestled within the printed words and margins.

"It's a trail back to you, like a license plate," Crean says.

The dots' minuscule size, covering less than one-thousandth of the page, along with their color combination of yellow on white, makes them invisible to the naked eye, Crean says. One way to determine if your color laser is applying this tracking process is to shine a blue LED light--say, from a keychain laser flashlight--on your page and use a magnifier.

It doesn't only match a document to a printer -- manufacturers can match the printer to a person or company.

Xerox and the government have a good relationship. "The U.S. government had been on board all along--they would actually come out to our labs"

The secret collusion is the scary part. I am not afraid of having documents traced back to me. It just bothers me that they can be without my knowing it.

Its spyware for printers. Even if its more or less harmless I don't want it there.

What about this : In the name of curbing kiddie porn, all digital images will be encoded with the serial number of the camera that took them -- but you won't be told that when you buy the camera. Is it such a big step ?

and matching the prnter to a ocmpnay is far from an exact match. we have clients with offices across the state (and on the mainland) and they print to remote printers all the time (instead of faxing since hey us "paperless" offices) these companys have HUNDREDS of employees with access to the printers. so its a step closer, but far from proof beyond a reasonable doubt.

It doesn't only match a document to a printer -- manufacturers can match the printer to a person or company.

I am with XTC46 on this one. Most printer sales are through wholesale or retail outlets. There is also the whole second user market.

The whole idea behind the technology is prevention of forgery. If you detect forged documents, you can tell that they came from the same source. You still have to find the printer and the people using it. It is a bit like ballistics from a gun, in that it provides a forensic link.

It is far too incomplete and optional to be considered an invasion of privacy.